Movie News: A few good menhirs

Gerard Depardieu looks as if he has finally landed the role he was born to play. Goscinny and Uderzo's Asterix and Obelix has detailed the pugnacious Gauls' resistance of the Romans for nearly 40 years and is slated to make the big-screen next year.

The hulking French actor will play Asterix's man-mountain sidekick, Obelix, whose enormous strength stems from a childhood dunk in a cauldron of magic potion. The pounds 25m film will see Depardieu defend his village against marauding Romans and Vikings, and promises to emulate the comic book original's appetite for slapstick violence and epic battles.